Nancy Pelosi Relents, Appears on ‘The Colbert Report’

JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi relented on her oath not to appear on Comedy Central’s Colbert Report when she joined host Stephen Colbert Wednesday for a segment to promote the DISCLOSE act.

Prior to the segment featuring Pelosi, Colbert teased a video clip of a previous interview with the Democratic leader when she told the comedian she would not appear on his show.

Adding fuel to the fire, on June 30, 2006, Pelosi predicted that Colbert would fail in his pursuit of interviewing every member of Congress for his show, and she discouraged her colleagues from falling for the trap.

“I wouldn’t recommend that anyone go on the show,” Pelosi (D-Calif.) advised at the time. “I would think that it would be okay to go on if you were live-to-tape, but don’t subject yourself to a comic’s edit unless you want to be made a fool of.”

But Wednesday night, wearing a red suit, Pelosi joined Colbert for a segment recorded live-to-tape earlier in the day.

“You said you’d never come on here. Do you often break your promises?” Colbert joked as he opened up the conversation.

“This is part of my lent resolution -- to do good works, be kind to Republicans,” she replied. “So here I am.”

Pelosi was invited onto the show to promote her support of the DISCLOSE Act, which Democrats recently reintroduced in the House of Representatives.

The Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending in Elections Act, also known as the DISCLOSE Act, aims to prohibit foreign influence in federal elections and establish additional disclosure requirements with respect to spending in elections.

“If we want to cancel elections, and have the wealthiest people in America … give tens of millions of dollars, we can just ask them: who do they want to be president, who do they want to run Congress, who do they want to be governor,” Pelosi said.

“That would be polite,” Colbert interjected.

“No that would be a plutocracy,” Pelosi scolded Colbert. “We are a democracy and our founders intended that the people would decide.”

With House Democrats in the minority, there is little hope for Congress to pass the bill this year. Pelosi said Democrats aim to “win the election, reform the system, overturn the Supreme Court decision [Citizens United] by amending the Constitution and give the vote and the voice and power to the people.”﻿